


growing pains

by _gncds (taeilcoat)



Series: when spring arrives [3]
Category: Golden Child (Korea Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Domestic, Domestic, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, M/M, basically sungyoon bribing his kids and making them keep secrets, do they even have a ship name yet, is that even the ship name for youngtaek and donghyun, its not romantic tho, not lapslock surprisingly, slight dongchan and taghyun, sorry to mislead, the only romantic pairing here is daeyoon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-02
Updated: 2020-02-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:27:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,242
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22529341
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/taeilcoat/pseuds/_gncds
Summary: All of their boys are different and have their own problems, but their biggest problem right now is Donghyun.
Relationships: Choi Sungyoon | Y/Lee Daeyeol, Hong Joochan/Kim Donghyun, Kim Donghyun/Son Youngtaek | TAG
Series: when spring arrives [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1620949
Comments: 1
Kudos: 66





	growing pains

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know if you can tell, but this series isn't going to be in chronological order. To help you out, Jangjun is 15, Youngtaek and Seungmin are 14, 99z are 13 and Bomin is 12 in this story. Also there are a couple of actual golcha moments in this story, hope you guys can pick them out! This whole thing was inspired by one of the more recent ones.

Sungyoon and Daeyeol have forgotten how hectic puberty can get, especially with how many boys they have in their home (but they suppose it works out better for them since they have no idea how to navigate puberty with girls). All their boys are different and have their own problems, but their biggest problem right now is Donghyun.

Luckily for them, the troublemakers didn’t hit puberty all at the same time, but watching his brothers grow up faster than him must have struck a nerve because Donghyun is the most sensitive one yet. His nagging has gotten worse, he yells a lot more over the smallest of things and if any of the boys get into an argument with him, you can bet Donghyun won’t let it go for days.

Somehow his worst match is Joochan, because they’re always arguing. Like the time Donghyun got his finger caught in the door when he was on his way out and Joochan called him a crybaby. Donghyun had chased him all the way out of the house and down the drive way, throwing random shoes at him before he started picking them back up to put them away. Or the other time when Joochan wanted to see what cosmetics Donghyun received for his birthday, but was nagged at for using them before he did.

“Stop taking my stuff!”

“I’m not taking them though? I’m just trying them out.” Joochan says innocently, smelling his hand cream. Humming in approval, he squeezes a bit out on the back of his hand and rubs them together. “Oh, this smells nice.”

Watching him in disbelief, Donghyun almost stutters trying to get his words out. Who in their right mind does this kind of thing? “You shouldn’t keep trying other people’s stuff without asking!”

“But you’re not some random person?” Joochan points out, putting the hand cream away to look at the other products. “What the heck is a body… what?” Joochan squints at the jar. “A body _butter_?”

“Argh, Hong Joochan!” Donghyun yells, throwing his hands up in frustration. “Fine, do whatever the hell you want!” and then the door slams shut as Donghyun exits their room with Jibeom and Jaehyun watching him go downstairs wide eyed (and also while trying to keep up with their game in Battlegrounds) because damn, that didn’t sound good.

It’s only a few minutes later that Joochan sticks his head out of the door and Jaehyun is the one to call out: “What did you do this time?”

“Nothing!”

Jibeom’s brows raise at that, but he doesn’t look up from his screen. “It’s not nothing if it’s Donghyun.”

Joochan sighs dramatically and disappears back into the bedroom.

They don’t speak for a week after that, but eventually make up when Jangjun challenges everyone to a match of Mario Kart one weekend and their team wins. However, that same weekend is the weekend Youngtaek irritates him and according to his track record, Youngtaek is the one who argues with Donghyun the most after Joochan.

This time it starts between Donghyun, Jibeom and Seungmin, arguing about when is a good time to use certain items both in Mario Kart and in Battlegrounds. Youngtaek comes up behind Seungmin and wraps his arms around his shoulders because he’s bored. He’s danced his heart out enough for one day and he’s _really bored_ , but Jangjun has an assignment to do and left for the library, Jaehyun and Joochan are napping and Bomin is doing his homework with Sungyoon. Daeyeol is out meeting a client and all of Youngtaek’s friends have plans. He doesn’t really want to play the game the others are playing, but he’ll watch if it means he won’t be alone. Pressing his cheek to Seungmin’s shoulder, he idly listens as they argue and play the game while watching Seungmin’s phone screen.

“I did that! Are you blind? It bounced back and I _died_!” Donghyun exclaims, exasperated because the other two really were not listening. Jibeom rolls his eyes.

“You obviously didn’t do it right.”

Youngtaek giggles. Maybe he could bother Donghyun. “But _he did that_ ,” he says, imitating Donghyun’s voice. He can feel Seungmin’s shoulder twitch under his cheek and he continues. “He _did that_ and he _died_.”

“Aish, I’m not playing anymore!” Donghyun finally huffs, getting up. Shoving past Seungmin, he pauses, frowns at Youngtaek and shoves him back onto the couch before going downstairs to tell Sungyoon he’s going out.

“Ah, I want to go to the park too! Daddy, please?” They hear Bomin exclaim and Youngtaek’s eyes, wide from being pushed by Donghyun, looks to Seungmin and Jibeom for a reaction. “He pushed me!”

“You asked for it.” Seungmin says simply, shrugging. Jibeom only glances up at Youngtaek from his screen for a second with a look that says _you know how Donghyun is_ , and then Youngtaek is standing up with a pout, going downstairs to sabotage everyone’s yoghurt drink.

How dare they! They’d thought it was funny too.

“Ah! Youngtaek hyung, want to go to the park?” Bomin asks, his eyes wide and sparking as he sees the elder descend the stairs. Donghyun is at his feet, frowning at Bomin’s shoes as he ties his laces for him while Sungyoon watches them quietly from the entrance to the living room. Youngtaek spots the soccer ball by Bomin’s side and he’s honestly tempted to say yes, but another look at Donghyun puts him in a bad mood and he shakes his head. Bomin’s shoulders drop at the wordless reply, but they perk up again as soon as Donghyun stands up and offers him his hand and then out they go.

“What happened?”

He’s still pouting when he turns to Sungyoon, who only gives him a smile and opens his arms for a hug. The corners of Youngtaek’s mouth twitch and then he’s in Sungyoon’s arms, pressing his face into his shoulder while inhaling deeply. He exhales slowly and then he’s smiling, all thanks to his dad who knew exactly how to calm him down. “I teased Donghyun a little bit upstairs because I was bored,” he admits, sheepishly looking up at Sungyoon. “He didn’t like it very much.”

Sungyoon chuckles, running his hand through his son’s hair, brushing his fringe away from his face. Youngtaek needed a haircut. “You know Donghyun by now. Wasn’t he already pretty heated from talking with Jibeom and Seungmin?”

“He didn’t have to push me though!” Youngtaek says, making a face at the memory. “I’m his hyung!”

“He shouldn’t have done that,” Sungyoon agrees, leading him into the kitchen. Motioning for him to sit on one of the bar stools, Sungyoon starts going around boiling water to make Youngtaek a cup of his favourite hot chocolate. “But you also have to be good to him.” He chides gently.

Huffing quietly, he folds his arms on the counter and rests his chin on them, watching as Sungyoon easily moves around the kitchen while humming a song. In a matter of minutes, a mug of hot chocolate is placed in front of him with a plate of cookies and Sungyoon winks at him. “It’s a secret between you and me, hm? A peace offering from Dad to make up with Donghyun.”

Youngtaek smiles and when Donghyun comes home later that afternoon, they make up with shy apologies and an offer of Youngtaek’s precious jellies. But Sungyoon and Daeyeol know they can’t let this go on forever, so one night after picking Donghyun up from dance practice, they go to his favourite restaurant.

It’s not a secret as to why they’re here, so after they order Daeyeol jumps straight into the topic with: “Donghyun, is everything okay?”

He doesn’t answer immediately, instead taking his time while not looking at his parents. He knows they won’t force him to talk, they never do, but they’re worried about him and he doesn’t like seeing them worry. There are so many of them and Donghyun can remember how tired Sungyoon would be when they were younger, especially in winter when one comes home sick and the others catch it too. Or how angry he would get when the boys wanted to play instead of settling down for dinner, making Daeyeol raise his voice as soon as he walked through the door.

He’s always listened to their words well, but he can’t control these emotions sometimes and he doesn’t know if they’ll understand that. “Yeah, everything’s okay.”

“Nothing’s happening at school or at the dance academy?” Sungyoon elaborates, reaching out to put his hand on Donghyun’s knee. He smiles at him and nods, squeezing Sungyoon’s hand. “You worry to much, Dad. Everything’s okay.”

“You know, you can’t keep yelling at your brothers like that,” Daeyeol says slowly, reaching out to pick something out of Donghyun’s hair. Being the kind of kid he is, his parents watch as he fluffs his hair in an attempt to get rid of anything else that may be hanging around before letting Sungyoon neaten it again. “I’m sure you don’t feel good yelling at them either.”

Donghyun nods and it’s then that their food arrives, but his heart’s just sunk to his stomach and he doesn’t have an appetite. He knows they’re not mad at him, but they’re not proud of him either. Honestly, he loves his wild, whacky family. His dads are great, his brothers are fun to be around and he doesn’t mean to yell and nag at everyone all the time, but they’re all just so _irritating_ sometimes. Besides, someone had to help their parents out. Daeyeol is always busy, Jangjun is getting busier, Seungmin always has his hands full with just Youngtaek and oh gosh, Bomin _needs_ a bodyguard around the clock. Don’t even get him started on Jaehyun, Jibeom and Joochan.

He doesn’t realise he’s frowning and picking at his food until Sungyoon puts more crab on his plate, making him jerk his head up in surprise. Daeyeol chuckles at his shocked expression, Sungyoon is already telling him to eat before the food gets cold and Donghyun can only smile before digging in.

“I know your brothers can be a little much sometimes,” Sungyoon starts, offering Donghyun a glass of water while he rubs some sauce off the corner of his lips with his thumb. “But they love you.”

He sighs and Daeyeol has to hide a laugh by drinking some water, because of course it’s Donghyun who would sigh like he had the weight of the entire world on his shoulders. “I know…”

“If you get frustrated with them, you know you can come to us. And I know this makes it sound like we’re nagging you, but you shouldn’t spend your teens fighting with them. One day, when you’re as old as we are, you’ll look back on these times fondly and– _hey_ , why are you laughing?” Daeyeol frowns, watching his husband shake his head at him with a smile, while Donghyun’s shoulders are _clearly_ shaking with laughter.

“I think he gets it, old man,” Sungyoon says, brushing his fringe away from his face. “Come on, lets finish eating, grab some ice cream and head home. It’ll be our secret, okay?” Donghyun’s eyes curve up into gentle crescents and he nods, going back to his food while Sungyoon watches fondly, petting the back of his head.

“You’re always spoiling them with sweets. Their teeth will rot early.” Sungyoon’s eyes almost roll to the back of his head, but he understood the sentiment. Their kids were growing up and it was sometimes hard to see them as anything more than the little kids that came to them years ago. They had to remember that this was their time to learn more about themselves, just as they had, and it wasn't the time for the kind of micromanaging they'd given when the kids were younger.

“I think they’re old enough to know if they eat too many, they’ll get cavities.”

Donghyun almost chokes in a rush to get his words out and this time it’s Sungyoon with a frown as he rubs his back while watching him drink water. “But Youngtaek hyung hides his jellies in his room.”

“Well,” Sungyoon shrugs. “I’ll find them eventually. He can’t hide them forever.”

They spend the rest of their dinner laughing at Daeyeol talking about memories from his teen years, or at stories he exposes of Sungyoon during their early dating days, but Donghyun’s mind is elsewhere when they go to get ice cream. Instead of answering when his parents ask what he wants, he searches his bag and all his pockets for any money he has and asks to buy a family bucket, listing off all the flavours his brothers like as flavours he’d like to put in. He doesn’t see it, but Daeyeol and Sungyoon share a look and when they ask the assistant to add in more of Donghyun’s favourite flavour, he panics. “Ah! I don’t have enough money!”

“Don’t worry about it, Appa is paying,” Sungyoon says lovingly, wrapping his arm around their son, pressing a kiss to the top of his head. “Thank you for thinking of them.” Smiling shyly, Donghyun shoves his hands into his jacket pockets and snuggles closer. 

Yeah, his brothers were annoying but he wouldn’t trade them for the world.

“Yah, Kim Donghyun, if you had this much money, why haven’t you bought me the chicken you owe me yet!”

Okay, maybe he’d trade Joochan away.

 _Maybe_.


End file.
